


The Harbingers of the Apocalypse

by AgentMaryMargaretSkitz, IncendiaGlacies



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Argus is horrible, Dark, Earth-142, Metahuman Powers (The Flash TV 2014)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 11:19:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18051530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz/pseuds/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz, https://archiveofourown.org/users/IncendiaGlacies/pseuds/IncendiaGlacies
Summary: The multiverse has many Earths, and no one has discovered all of them. Earth-1 will soon become a refuge to a group of fugitives from Earth-142. While five were supposed to come through, only four made it there. Each of them has a story for what made them who they are in their world.





	The Harbingers of the Apocalypse

**Author's Note:**

> @incendiaglacies and I have been talking about an AU for the past year and a half (I think?) that we call The Horsewomen. With Legends of SHIELD and Roommates, we’ve kind of put it off to the side, but now it’s time to bring a bit of it to life. Think of this as a prequel for what might be one day...
> 
> It feels good to be writing again. The past few months have been a lot of pressure and stress for me. A lot of life changes happened in quick succession and some were harder to handle than others. It made writing difficult, but now I'm working at getting back to it. Hopefully I can get some good content up again this month.

               In the multiverse, there are many earths, several of which have discovered one another. However, not one universe has ever been able to discover every single one of its companions. Earth-1 only knows of 52 other Earths. That number will soon be 53 once they discover Earth-142, or at least the residents of that Earth that invade theirs.

The first ones to arrive are regarded as villains on their earth. Each of them possess a penchant for chaos and destruction. Five originally planned to come. Only four were able to survive Earth-142 long enough to make it to a new Earth.

* * *

 

I.

               When she was seven years old, everything she knew was obliterated. Krypton had been dying for so long with no one lifting a finger to save it. As it crumbled and its core destabilized, the young girl was put into an escape pod by her well-meaning parents and sent away from the planet before it exploded. For years, she would see her world explode into rock and dust and flame in her dreams while the shuttle carried her to another planet.

               The planet she landed on was known as Earth. A family adopted her as their own and gave her a home, but it was clear very soon that she was not like them. Her skin was stronger than steel and she levitated when she slept. The most obvious difference was that her whole body would glow when she was out in the sun. She could control it, but sometimes she’d generate fire in her hands or explode into flames. Every time this happened, she always would extinguish herself and be left without a scratch.

               For three years, she was told to hide what she could do from the rest of the world. Unfortunately, the girl could not hide herself anymore at ten when she grew angry with a classmate and lost control. The classmate was taken to the hospital with second-degree burns while Argus was called to the town to take the girl into custody. They studied her alone at first, then collaborated with a laboratory a few years later to experiment on the girl. When they weren’t doing that, she was locked up, totally cut off from the world.

               Years came and went, aging the girl into a bitter young woman with a heart full of hate. She was discovered one day by an Argus agent who tried to set her free before being caught. Weeks passed before the agent came again and set her and another woman free. Something had happened to the agent that gave her abilities and a thirst for revenge. Together, the trio found others with abilities that also wanted to get even with the world. That’s what they ended up doing until things became too hot even for her. So then the plan changed from destruction to escape.

Kara Zor-El did not survive long enough to make it to the new Earth. However, she made the world fear her when she scorched those who got in her way.

* * *

 

II.

               Prior to her transformation, she was full of potential. As one of the youngest scientists in STAR Labs, she had already made leaps and bounds in her career. People had been taking notice of the bioengineering doctor and had great expectations. But there were some who chose to look upon her with envy and anger. Why should she be the darling of STAR Labs when they were just as good as her?

               Then there came a day when she was working on a cryogenics project with two other doctors. All of them were ambitious and driven, although perhaps too much for their own good. If they achieved success and were rewarded with praise and recognition, two was company while three was a crowd. They all pushed each other, knowing the one who couldn’t handle the heat would be cut out.

One of the doctors stooped to sabotage the formula that she’d prepared for the first cryogenic chamber. When she put it into the system that had been built, it started immediately instead of delaying the process so she could get out. In fear of their lives, her coworkers bolted out and shut the door with her still inside. She screamed and clawed at the window for them to do something before the cold overtook her body completely.

Evolution boiled down to die or adapt for survival. Her body chose to do the latter as she shuddered away in the subzero temperatures. When the chamber was shut down and the heads of STAR Labs entered to see the damage that had been done, they were surprised to discover that the doctor was still alive, albeit with her skin and chestnut hair now bleached white. Dr. Wells offered a hand to help her up, but she absorbed its heat and rendered it into a dead and useless nub. Horrified, his wife pulled him out and locked her employee back in the chamber, frightened of what she’d become.

Dr. Wells reported the death of the victim to the public while keeping her secretly imprisoned in a special cell. The once-promising scientist was now to become a subject to be studied in hopes of learning new information about cryogenic human preservation and the other changes her body experienced. Other than that, she was to have no outside contact with anyone. Being separated from everything gave the chilly doctor a deep hunger for purpose. She was famished for something to give her meaning once more.

Caitlin Snow eventually escaped with the alien and an Argus agent. With them and others, she found a calling in revenge as she unleashed frost and ice upon those who she deemed deserving of it.

* * *

 

III.

               Anyone who meet her or knew her believed that she was perfect. She had graduated high school a year ahead of schedule and been accepted into top universities. There, she had performed exceptionally in her fields of study to receive a double major upon graduation. A master’s and doctorate degree soon followed both. She took a job at her father’s company afterwards, making strides and continuing to impress just about everyone who came across her.

               The one exception to all her achievements was her father. No matter what she did, it was never enough for him. The paper was insufficient. More could have been added to that project. Why didn’t she apply for that grant? Nothing ever pleased him, and it contributed to more than one heated discussion between the two. It always led to him never apologizing and her feeling discouraged and pushing herself to work harder so he might one day be proud of her.

               One day, the final and worst argument took place in the particle accelerator that her father hoped would be completed before the one STAR Labs was working on. Words were exchanged as she worked on calibrating the mechanics for an upcoming test of the accelerator. Her anger began to bubble up and led to a mistake that resulted in the accelerator being set off. The explosion was contained inside the ring, but father and daughter were hit by dark matter.

               When she woke up in the hospital, her mother told her that her father had died in the accident. The room started to shake as she replayed the information inside her head. It got worse when the police officers in the room told her she was being charged for murder based on the circumstances. That set her off, being blamed for something that she’d never intended to do. The entire hospital began to tremble and soon collapsed, killing almost everyone except herself and a few other people.

Surviving two accidents so closely together made people suspicious. Another earthquake that brought down a building and left her as the only survivor made them turn their backs on her, leaving her with nowhere to go to. She was smart enough soon to figure out that she could now create vibrations powerful enough to shake the earth. Someone else was too and sought her out. She offered the disgraced perfectionist a chance to let her anger out at the world alongside others.

With the power at her fingertips and friends at her side, Lily Stein made the world tremble before her.

* * *

 

IV.

               Family history is more important than some people care to admit. Some are very willing to pass it on and share the good and the bad of it. Others remain tightlipped and never speak of certain things, no matter the consequences they might hold. Such was the case with her family and a curse that had been in the bloodline for generations.

               She had been out with her younger sister shopping on a warm spring day. Unfortunately, two muggers saw the blondes and decided that they would be the perfect targets for a robbery. One threatened to shoot her little sister if they didn’t hand over their valuables in enough time, and she was too scared to move in front of the gun before it was fired. Watching her little sister crumple to the ground unleashing something inside of her. When she screamed, there was a power in it that she’d never experienced before. The muggers flew back against the other side of the alley, one hitting his head on the metal dumpster. She ran from the scene, knowing he was dead.

               While mourning her sister, she started to do her research to why her voice had such a power. It traced back to Ireland and how her mother’s ancestor was cursed. Were any of her female descendants ever to lose someone they loved without trying to save them, they were to be cursed with the power of a banshee forever as a reminder of their failure. She took this knowledge and carried it as her burden until the surviving robber came back to threaten her and her parents a week after the funeral. With her parents’ lives on the line, she used her scream again, refusing to stop until he was dead.

               In payment for saving them, her parents cut off all ties with her, cast here out, and outed her as metahuman to the public. Not only was she a killer, but she had powers that made her that way. There were rules of imprisonment for individuals with such abilities that Argus always followed through on. With no home to go back to, she ran away from all to escape imprisonment. There was nothing for her to go back to.

Then one day, a group of women found her hiding out in a condemned house. Their leader had once been with Argus before developing powers and turning her back on them. All of them had been wronged in life and were using their abilities to get back at those who hurt them most. They offered her a place among them, a new family.

Instead of cowering before the world, Laurel Lance was able to use her screech to make the world cower before her.

* * *

 

V.

               Before everything that happened to her, things were going her way in life. Her job at Argus was something that she really loved to do and was very good at. When she was in trouble out in the field, her partner would always have her back. Her husband never made her feel guilty about her job. It was her family that brought her home and reminded her that there was good in the dark world she worked in.

               Then STAR Labs canceled a project on cryogenics that Argus had planned to collaborate on after an employee was reported to have died working on it. The two of them were tasked to find out what had caused the scientist’s death and why STAR Labs, which had always prided itself on its determined employees, decided to shut the project down. During the investigation, they both snuck into the scientific facility, but she was the one who discovered there was more happening between STAR Labs and Argus than they’d been told. Trying to do the right thing by setting two women free lead to her being left for dead and at the mercy of the organization she’d now betrayed.

               She became a lab rat alongside the alien and the doctor underneath STAR Labs. Scientists performed tests and experiments on her. Every day was something new and terrifying. She kept waiting for her partner to come back for her, or at least someone to set her free. But no one came to save her, resulting in her slowly giving up hope that anyone was coming.

One day, after another experiment, she started to seize up. They locked her in an isolation chamber as her heart stopped, then restarted on its own moments later. When she woke back up, something was buzzing under her skin as the scientists stared down at her in surprise. The astonishment at the feat was the distraction that she needed to lash out at them with a newfound power. She used it to electrocute her torturers, then to free the alien and doctor so all of them could escape.

               After her escape, she discovered her life had been reduced to ruins. Argus had not only left her for dead when she found out too much. They’d pinned the doctor’s ‘death’ on her and made her into a pariah. Her home was abandoned and there was no trace of her family. She had lost everything she’d once loved in life. All she has left was her two new friends, powers that she was still trying to understand, and a deep anger towards those who had taken from her.

All that anger and pain ate away at Gideon Hunter and turned her into a dangerous force that would shock first her own Earth, and then another.

**Author's Note:**

> This was intended for International Women's Day, but I didn't get finished last night. But I've gotten it together now, so I hope this gets interest for another one of our creations.
> 
> Kudos and comments are great for our morale!


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